innFactory AI Consulting from Rosenheim, Germany advises enterprises across the DACH region (Germany, Austria, Switzerland) on GDPR-compliant integration of medical AI. MedGemma 1.5, released by Google in January 2026, is one of the most capable open-source models for healthcare applications - we strongly recommend self-hosting for patient data and careful compliance review under MDR/IVDR and the EU AI Act.
Important Notice
MedGemma is NOT an approved medical device. It must not be used as the sole basis for clinical decisions. All results must be validated by qualified medical professionals.
New Capabilities in MedGemma 1.5
Enhanced Imaging Support
- 3D medical imaging: Processing complete CT and MRI volumes, not just individual slices
- Whole-slide pathology: Analysis of large-scale histopathology images through patch-based processing
- Longitudinal image analysis: Comparison of image series over time, such as multiple chest X-rays of the same patient
- Improved anatomical localisation: Significantly more precise identification of anatomical structures, particularly in chest radiographs
Substantial Performance Improvements
MedGemma 1.5 demonstrates significant advances over previous versions:
- CT findings: Accuracy increased from 58% to 61%
- MRI findings: Accuracy improved from 51% to 65%
- Laboratory reports: Macro F1 score for structured data extraction improved from 60% to 78%
- Histopathology: ROUGE-L score increased from 0.02 to 0.49
- Radiograph localisation: Intersection-over-Union improved from 3% to 38%
Two Optimised Variants
- MedGemma 1.5 27B: For complex, text-heavy use cases with 87.7% MedQA accuracy
- MedGemma 1.5 4B: Compute-efficient multimodal variant that can operate offline, with 64.4% MedQA accuracy
Availability and Integration
Cloud Deployment
MedGemma 1.5 is available through multiple channels:
- Hugging Face: Direct downloads of open-source models
- Google Vertex AI: Cloud deployment in EU regions (europe-west3 Frankfurt)
- Model Garden: Integration into existing Google Cloud workflows
Complementary Technology: MedASR
Alongside MedGemma 1.5, Google released MedASR, a specialised speech-to-text model for medical dictation. This combination enables efficient clinical documentation with downstream AI analysis.
Regulatory Aspects
EU Regulation for Healthcare AI
- MDR/IVDR: Medical device regulations must be strictly observed
- EU AI Act: Medical AI classified as high-risk system
- Liability: Full responsibility lies with the user, not the model developer
- Validation: Clinical validation required before production deployment
Data Privacy in Healthcare Context
- GDPR Art. 9: Special categories of personal data (health data)
- Self-hosting recommended: Patient data should not leave your infrastructure
- Anonymisation mandatory: Required before any processing with AI models
- Data residency: When using cloud services, select EU regions
Self-Hosting for Maximum Control
For medical applications involving patient data, we expressly recommend self-hosting:
- Complete data control and sovereignty
- No data transmission to external providers
- Fulfilment of stringent data protection requirements
- Independence from cloud provider availability
The open-source nature of MedGemma enables flexible deployment in your own infrastructure, from on-premise servers to private cloud environments.
Our Recommendation
MedGemma 1.5 27B is suitable for research institutions and organisations with sufficient computational resources requiring highest accuracy. The 4B variant is ideal for resource-constrained environments or edge deployment.
Both variants are valuable tools for medical research, clinical education, and as support systems. However, they must never serve as the sole basis for clinical decisions.
For healthcare organisations, we offer specialised AI consulting - particularly regarding compliant integration under MDR, IVDR, and the EU AI Act.